Toshiba today announced new 1.8-inch hard disk drives (HDD) that integrate a performance enhancing serial ATA interface: the MK1216GSG offers a storage capacity of 120GB, while the MK8016GSG has a capacity of 80GB. These are the first Toshiba 1.8-inch HDD to employ a serial ATA interface, which boosts data transfer rates beyond those achieved by the parallel ATA interface, and also offer a rotation speed of 5,400 rpm, 29% faster than the current generation of Toshiba HDD. Higher rotation speeds support faster data access in reading and writing and enhance overall drive performance.

Toshiba will showcase the new drives at Intel Mobility Summit, in Shanghai, China from February 26 to 28. Both Toshiba models MK1216GSG / MK8016GSG measure 54.0 x 78.5 x 8.0mm and mass production of both drives will start in April.